Tuesday, August 25, 2009

I had a dream Sunday night that Mark Hoppus gave me a high-five for wearing a descendents shirt. Then he said he liked my vans and dedicated "Online Songs" to me. Pretty rad dream.

Anyways, update? Yea update on my boring-ass life.

The biggest thing is that it's almost time to head back to the University of Guelph. I could not be more happy about this. Our new crib is incredible and seeing all the people from school again will be great. Plus there's O-Week before classes. And classes are a joke for the first month. Which means that it will be party time all the time. Seriously though, I should buckle down this year and actually do some work. I really feel like I've been coasting through my program so far, mostly because I have. I know I can do a lot better than I have and I am going to.

Coming home from school I was really looking for a fresh start and leaving all my problems behind me. I am positive that I've done that. I like to generally think of myself as a positive person. I'm back to being that way. At least I'm pretty sure I am.

Being a lifeguard at Ontario Place is fun while you re-connect with work friends, make new work friends and don't really do much. Then eventually you get to a point where it takes too much energy and you stop giving a fuck about anything that happens there. I'm way past that point and don't really care. Almost done and the reprieve from the water park will be welcomed.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Monday, August 10, 2009

I sat along the rocks and watch the cold Maine water rush away.The sun and my guitar and I knew what you were doing yesterday.You broke those promises but I’ll get over it.‘Cause as long as I’m breathing fresh air I don’t really give a shitSo I’ll complain for the next ten years, but remember that sometimes things are great.

I didn’t have directions and I hadn’t eaten anything all day.We sucked a fat one and wasted a hundred dollars just to play.I ate a bag of peanuts right before the windy road.And I couldn’t drink a thing all night ‘cause of the vomit in the back my throat.Then you gave me your number and your sweatshirt so I didn’t give a shit.So I’ll complain for the next eleven years, but remember that sometimes things are great.

You don’t own me! You don't own me!

I worked my ass of my entire life to accomplish one dream.It started happening and everything was bastardized my greed.I said “pull this shit over and let me outI swear to fucking God I’m fucking giving up right now”And now I’ve got a brand new start, I remember that something are great.

Scream it in apartment halls -Scream it loud in shopping malls -Take a ball point pen and paint the inside’s of your eyelids with the constant reminder:You don’t own me. You don’t own me.

Then I was underground without food or sunlight or encouragement.Depression set in ‘cause I was a product of my environment.Then the other day, I got in my car.Pick Glenn Tillbrook up from the hotel, drive him to the bar.He wore a t-shirt just like me and wasn’t on his phoneand for fifteen minutes I had a conversation with a hero.So I’ll complain for the next ten years...And after that we’ll go drink beers until the bar runs out of beersprepare for the next twenty-three years.

‘Cause if I wasn’t a fat kid in high school, I would have never listened to punk rock.And if I knew how to throw a football, I would have never played any music.And if never got my heart broken, I would sing “blah blah fucking nothing.”And if you didn’t fuck my ex-girlfriend, I would still owe you three-thousand dollars.And if I never lived in that van I wouldn’t have met Chris or Steve or James, Alex or Middagh.And if I never worked in a basement I would have never moved out of my house.And if I had a big emo band or dropped out of college, I would have never met you, man.

"It was all written in Long Island and it is very expressive of my hope to go around the country playing stupid songs for people who will forget me again."

You fucking changed my life Jeff, I won't forget who you are for the rest of my life.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Any doubts I had about the blink-182 reunion are gone. While they aren't my absolute favourite band, they're definitely up there as a top 10. Plus there's no way I can deny the influence that they had on me while I was younger.

"Like the special time you have in the shower. With your dad."

"Goddamn you're a weird guy Tom"

"This song is for all the Canadian males. Who have to deal with the cold and your wiener gets small. And ladies don't like it. Anyways this is All The Small Things."

"Come on let me hold you, touch you, FUCK you"

"The U.S. pentagon says that Toronto is it's favourite place. That was the worst joke I've ever made, so we're starting the next song."

Thursday, August 6, 2009

So I finally got around to reading "Wolverine: Origin" despite all the bad things I had heard about how it was received. X-Men is the main comic title that I read. I enjoy the story-lines thoroughly and I find that each of the characters have been developed extremely well. Usually each has a contradiction in their life that seems impossible to overcome, but drives the story line. Cyclops doing everything he can to be a great leader/Xavier's protege but failing, Nightcrawler being a monk but looking like a demon, Wolverine's introverted personality ruining his relationships.

Wolverine also happens to be one of my favourite characters (come on, beer swilling, cigar smoking, canadian badass who beats villains to a pulp with no weapons?) so this line intrigued me. However, Wolverine's true past has also been shrouded, adding to the appeal of the character. We know he was working for the Canadian government, and Alpha force before that, and Canadian special forces before that. A life in Japan was in there somewhere, but other than that it was anyone's guess. Many argued that revealing/creating his past would destroy his character and for arguably Marvel's most popular personage this seemed like an awful idea. It's one thing to ruin a character like Boom-Boom, but Wolverine? Come on!

After reading the six issues of the title, I found myself extremely disappointed. The story certainly had potential but was nowhere near developed enough. There is a huge jump in time around issues 3 and 4 and he just sort of transforms from a sickly Canadian rich kid to the Wolverine we know now out of left field. The entire story takes place in 19th century Alberta and the effort made to recreate the type of dialogue used at that time was just subpar. The artwork also leaves much to be desired. I would think that for a project that bears as much influence as this one, Marvel would have gotten the biggest names in the business to work on it.

It hasn't affected the line of X-Men that much, other than Wolverine reverting to his 8-year-old self for a while in astonishing X-Men, but seriously it does fall very short of what it could be. Even if they had saved it for a few years until the comic market picked up again, I'm sure it would have been much better.